This popped up in my news feed. Thought it was worth while.
This one should make you feel good…keep praying, and maybe we still have hope in our world.
There’s hope for humanity
You know, Jeffrey, I get it. I get that you hate Trump. And I get why. At least, I get it enough to understand that, depending on your predisposition and your world view, you may see president Trump as a very dangerous man for the country.
Does the president brag a lot? Of course. He's probably in a class of his own in this regard - most everyone sees the reality that a guy in a role as a world leader should act far more "presidential" than he does. He is magnitudes removed from proper decorum and tone of speech from what a world leader is assumed to be.
You're a mental health coach. You should know better. In a response to @realDonaldTrump and his tweet to "LIBERATE MICHIGAN," you out-stupided yourself where you said,
"I welcome follows unless you support Trump. If you support him, please block me. Thank you."
The edited screen shot of that post sort of looks like this:
You know, it's too bad I can't just post a link here to the actual Twitter post. I would, except your mental health seemed to be compromised when the picture you posted with your little pissy-fit of apparent portions of some male genitalia made it unfit to print here.
I'm not exactly sure the reason for the visual vulgarity. It seems to be beneath any decent human being, let alone someone with a doctorate in telling people how to have good mental health.
This, actually, is one of the reasons many people seem to think a Ph. D. doesn't always mean much.
It's ironic how you probably don't see how ironic your quite "Trump-like" post, designed to be provocative, shows you're just like what it is you think you hate about him.
You despise him for how he attacks his enemies and seems to embrace controversy and attempts to go after his critics.
Isn't mental health about not carrying grudges, about learning to hear the other side of an argument so that the best idea can win? Is your idea of mental health despising people you disagree with?
I'm not sure I would trust anyone as a mental health coach if they spew hatred for anyone. I understand the despising of ideas; for instance, I despise the concepts in modern left-wing liberalism. But I would never tell anyone who holds to those ideas that I don't want them to listen to me.
If you truly cared for people who think differently than you, why not welcome them to follow you, so you have a better chance to influence their thinking for the better.
It seems if you're truly interested in engaging people with the idea of helping them to think better, clearer and more consistently and logically, then you should want people who disagree with you to follow you, reading your posts, visiting your site, in hopes that something you say will actually get through to them.
How else do you actually get through to someone who, apparently (in your mind) is thinking wrongly enough to actually like Trump? Don't you do it by presenting them with ideas they've maybe not chewed on before?
Think, Jeffrey, think. You've got a doctorate, for crying out loud. You should be able to sift through ideas and separate the wheat from the chaff, no?
There is such a contrast in approach to differences between the left and the right.
People on the right feel that everyone should be free to say what they want; but that, in the end, the best ideas will survive and thrive simply by intellectual competition in the marketplace.
People on the left feel the only way to win is to effectively remove the right's right to have a voice. For instance, Red State writes of the attack on Rush Limbaugh:
Last week, Rush Limbaugh suggested Sandra Fluke was a slut. The left immediately began calling for boycotts of his advertisers. He apologized on Saturday. Fluke refused to accept his apology claiming he did it under duress and the pressure has kept up.It is organized and it has nothing to do with Limbaugh referring to Sandra Fluke as the same thing Ed Schultz referred to Laura Ingraham as. It has to do with a well executed PR strategy to frame a debate on mandating [that] Americans subsidize the sexual habits of women as a war on women by the GOP. The media, which leans left already on social issues, would much rather focus on Rush Limbaugh than on the left’s PR strategy and Sandra Fluke’s own testimony. What is happening here is an organized campaign by the left to shut down opposing views from the right. Many on the left and right, myself included, have said things we should not have said. The difference is that the left seizes on the statements made by the right as excuses to demand they never be heard from again and are unqualified to speak on any topic.
You just want to spew hate toward your dissenters in the name of intellectual superiority.
But don't worry. I followed you on twitter. I thought it's what you really wanted anyway. I'm just waiting to see how long it will be until you block me.
The “Calvinist vs Arminian debate” has raged for millenia now. I’m not sure that many people will change their minds once they’ve dug in on a position on the whole thing. The issues are complex and people are passionate on both sides of the debate.
The target audience is the “reluctant Calvinist….”
But the person I have on my heart when I write—my target audience, I suppose—is the person I would define as “the reluctant Calvinist.” He is the Christian who recognizes that lost men do not seek God and that he came to faith in Christ because God first did a transforming work in his heart. Yet he struggles with the fact that the sovereign God of the Bible seems to desire that all mankind should come to faith in Jesus Christ, and yet chooses in His sovereignty to save only some. He reads in the Bible that the ones God chooses, He chose from before the foundation of the world. And so, though he prays for the lost to be saved, he is left wondering whether it really makes a difference in the end.
From my experience in discussing these issues with people, I all-too-often get the feeling from many a Calvinist that it’s quite frankly not our business to worry about that. God’s got it. Some almost seem to PRIDE themselves in the fact that it’s just “God’s choice.”
But when you throw the idea out there that if God is choosing some, he is, effectively, choosing to “not choose” others, the Calvinist gets right royally ticked off with you. “God isn’t condemning them. They were condemned already.“
To most people, that’s a shell game. It sort of feels like Hillary Clinton regarding the whole Benghazi debacle, where she said, in response to the pinning of blame for what happened, said, “at this point, what difference does it make?“
The arguments feel tired and worn. And it seems to deliberately miss the problem. It’s a hard point of contention for the Arminian. From the book:
It is hard for the Arminian to embrace the Calvinist’s God. He is a God who is passionate enough about redeeming the elect that He sets aside His rights as deity and takes on the constraints of human flesh. He then allows His own creatures to torture Him and bleed Him to death on a cross. And from God’s view, He allows it for no other reason than to appease His own wrath toward a mankind whose very nature is so hostile to His that they killed Him when they had the chance. And yet this same Calvinist God who “spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all” and who is now is willing, along with that, to “freely give us all things”—this same God who went to such great lengths of self-sacrifice to be able to bless His own so much—is the same God who decided in eternity past to do that only for some. The others He passes by, yet will hold them accountable for the acts that spring from a nature they are powerless to overcome. In the end, they will be in hell with the demons who fell from grace, and “the smoke of their torment [will rise] before the throne of God day and night, forever and ever” (Rev. 20:10).
If someone had two children, lavishing favor and blessing on one of them, but treating the other as though he were trash, that parent would be accused of being a monster. After all, a godly parent loves his or her children unconditionally. To do nothing less than to lavish unconditional love on all of them is what God expects a parent to do. Even if one child were to despise the parent while the other child was honoring and loving, the nature of a Christian parent is supposed to be one of displaying the love of Christ to that child with the evil heart, “if perhaps God may grant repentance” (2 Tim. 2:25). If the Calvinist is right, then God is the only one who can grant repentance. If He sovereignly saves someone, they will come. If He doesn’t, they will not because they cannot. How can someone see God as being so passionate toward some and cruel toward others, when He appears to expect something better from us?
For the Calvinist to merely shift the conversation away from this problem to say that our real focus should be on the fact that none of us deserve heaven, but God gives it to some of us anyway avoids the issue as far as the Arminian is concerned.
It doesn’t steer away from it at all. It acknowledges the tension.
The difference is that “God’s Will and God’s Desire” proposes a distinctly different position on what (or who) it is that determines who will and who will not be saved.
The Calvinist says God determines who will be saved; the Arminian says that each lost person is responsible to choose. The book says “sort of wrong” on both counts.
And man, does that idea seem to tick a lot of people right off.
But it’s a worthy position to consider and it is developed pretty thoroughly in the book.
The book covers the idea that this position isn’t really “new,” so much as “not documented much historically,” but seems to ring true to a lot of people somehow.
As more and more people read it, I began to realize that there were other Christians who saw it this way, too. They just never saw it presented in this fashion before. When people would read it, it sometimes helped them make sense of some of these difficult issues. Christians with strong Calvinistic leanings usually had a particular response, too. This was something distinctly different than they had ever heard before. Many told me that it gave them a serious reason to rethink their Calvinistic views. The feedback I usually got (from Calvinist and non-Calvinist alike) was that it was an important booklet and that it needed to be published.
Please, I invite comments – if you’ve actually taken the time to read the book.
I’ve gotten so tired of the polarities in the body of Christ. God seems to have enough patience for all of us (including a lot of folks I honestly maybe wouldn’t like). And truth be known, the whole “Hillsong Church is new age” mantra feels so tired and worn.
Let me clarify. I do understand why some take issue with the doctrines of Hillsong Church. It’s just that saying they are “new age” is going way to far.
And I’m not talking about their other potential issues here.
Polarities that arise over doctrinal differences in the body of Christ are inevitable. The issues are complex. We all bring different presuppositions and experiences to how we try to make sense of what is true and false doctrinally.
Hillsong is like any other church in this regard: doctrinal positions they take tend to be rather polarizing. But it isn’t really the “doctrinal polarization” that I’m concerned about.
My concern is more with the polarizing attitudes in the body of Christ that cause so many to shout “antichrist” about so many other believers who have nothing but good intentions and might just be a little misinformed.
But If you’re going to hold yourself out to be a voice to the people to lead them from error, then be compassionate. Be compassionate enough to not be angry with those who do not yet hear what you think you have to say.
Be honest enough to recognize when your anger is just about others not acknowledging that you’re right.
It doesn’t do a lot of good to merely take shots at our “doctrinal enemies” simply over doctrinal differences. I’ve learned to speak to ungodly attitudes and separate those from false doctrinal beliefs.
I wish other people could learn to do this.
Look. I get it. I’m definitely not thrilled with all of what they seem to embrace doctrinally, either. I’m just not bothered by everything they say and do, contrary to what seems to come from some of their biggest critics.
If that is the first place you’re going to go in your head – to try to get a radar-fix on what my doctrinal position is, then I might have a problem with you, too.
If you’re reading with your main focus to see if I’m “on your side” doctrinally, you’re still missing what I’m trying to say here.
There shouldn’t be “sides” in the body of Christ.
We could pretty much avoid doctrine altogether and still have an unfortunate look at what bugs me here about the Hillsong Church phenomenon.
Besides, I have experienced much in my Christian walk that lines up with what I’ve personally heard in the teachings of Hillsong Church. I’ve also seen their words twisted and butchered before. And THAT is why the whole Hillsong Church controversy just bugs me.
Perhaps the fact that I tend to align doctrinally somewhat with them predisposes me to be sensitive to some of their critics.
The fact is that even if I was baptistic-leaning in my beliefs (which I’m not, but rather charismatic) I would still be annoyed with so much of what I see written about Hillsong (and Bethel, and so many churches like them).
So, what are the problems with Hillsong church, anyway?
And then ask yourself: does it make you angry? If so, why? Maybe the results make you angry because you have a passion for truth. And “New Age Theology” sure ain’t truth.
The links that come up that annoy me are “The World Finally Seeing Hillsong as new age” and “Why Hillsong Music Is Dangerous For Your Church,” just to name a few.
My issue isn’t that I think they Hillsong is “new age” (because I’m not convinced of that at all, yet). My issue is with so much of these sometimes false accusations about what Hillsong really teaches.
Jesus said, “the truth will make you free.” And if you have a prophetic nature about you, you too may be zealous for pointing out the “non-truths” you see and hear to warn people not to be led astray into darkness.
Does this sound like that? Does this article from “Pulpit and Pen” look loving and kind? Here, they quote from the Hillsong creative team talking about how they try to function harmoniously within the framework of their church leadership, and their response to the idea.
It is so important that as amazing as our creative ideas might be, if they don’t ultimately line up with what our Senior Pastor and leaders want, then we happily put them aside.The church doesn’t exist to build our worship teams… our worship teams exist to build the Church!!
Douglass has made it clear who the Hillsong worship program exists to serve. (Hint: It isn’t Jesus.)
Is this speaking truth in love? (How do you know?)
I’ve been involved with many a baptist church in the past that promotes the idea that God doesn’t appoint boards or committees; He appoints MEN. And if you don’t get in line with the pastor’s vision, get out.
But I’m not sure that “Pulpit and Pen” supports a “brethren model” of the church. So is this about the model, or is this a mixed motive of criticizing the man, and bending theology momentarily to support the prejudice?
I don’t know. And I won’t automatically take shots at the writers at “Pulpit and Pen” because I don’t know their hearts. I’m just not too sure I see them exercising the same kind of tolerance and suspending judgement. It feels like they claim to know other’s hearts in a way that I’m not sure I can.
Or what about this one?
Clearly Houston has no idea what the purpose and function of the church is. While he twists a passage out of Acts 8 in a sorry attempt to prove the church is made up of wicked people, he then states how he loves the fact that his church is full of broken, unrepentant people.
Maybe this is the way we are called to judge each other? Can we point out what we think are theology issues without crucifying the theologians?
Or how about this one?
While Christians worship Jesus, many people who claim to be Christian today worship what is coined as a ‘moralistic, therapeutic deity’. This ever-changing deity is whatever Hillsong wants this god to be at any given time. Slapping the word ‘Jesus’ on it and claiming to the world they are Christian does not make them Christian, nor a church. It is no wonder why people in their own movement cannot explain what Christianity is nor tell you what the gospel is.
Hillsong Church Watch
Charismatics take issue with R. C. Sproul and John MacArthur. Baptist take issue with Joyce Meyers, Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copeland. Some baptists even take issue with R. C. Sproul!!
And flat-earthers take issue with all of them, based on bible references – even though a lot of flat-earthers don’t even believe a lot of what the bible says about Jesus.
However…
I get this, too. We all want to be sure we are “doctrinally sound.” Paul spoke of the need for solid doctrine and warned against “wolves in sheep’s clothing,” “false teachers” and “doctrines that tickle the ear.”
Regarding the whole problem of corruption in the leadership of Hillsong Church, I’m not qualified (yet) to speak to whether or not this is the case. Perhaps there are some among the leadership and staff at Hillsong who are corrupt.
But…
Again, I’m not defending everything that might be going on with the leadership at Hillsong Church.
But having people in your church who “cannot explain what Christianity is nor tell you what the gospel is” – who cannot (yet) clearly articulate their understanding of the nature of God or the trinity – doesn’t automatically mean that the church is teaching “whatever Hillsong wants this god to be at any given time.”
And that might just be a good thing. It just might mean your church is actually growing and that you’re not just preaching to the choir anymore. You’re actually preaching to new believers who aren’t going to get it all in the first 72 hours.
You see, when Paul spoke against false teachers as wolves in sheep’s clothing, he was talking about people who “knew better,” who he plainly knew to be in it for selfish gain; people whose gods were their bellies, and their appetites their shame.
Maybe you think you can read people’s hearts and motives like that. I know I need to allow more benefit of the doubt before I decide whether this is all about “selfish gain” in the hearts of Hillsong staff.
But maybe you’re more prophetic than I am. Whatever.
Quite frankly, I that the charges of Hillsong Church being “New Age” are ridiculous and overblown.
Now, maybe I’m wrong.
And that’s ok. We all grow and (hopefully) change our opinions over time. Even if the core ideas remain the same over time, our perspectives should become richer as we age.
And, hopefully, our attitudes become more charitable toward others who we think are messed up and confused. It’s not what I see on some of the websites I read on some of these posts.
Do you keep this reality in mind as you interact with others who believe differently than you?
We all have to start somewhere. And as iron sharpens iron, as I see things with the openness to having my beliefs challenged by others who think differently, I’ve learned a lot and changed my views, SPECIFICALLY because I was open to the idea that I might be wrong.
And do you correct those you see as wrong in love? Can you say you are “on your knees in your heart” for those you criticize, praying for them to see truth as you do? Or do you enjoy being critical of them?
Are you guilty of wanting to rain down fire and brimstone from heaven to consume these “false teachers” you’re so bent about?
But then, thirty years ago, I thought I knew everything.
Thirty years ago, I would have been downright annoyed with some of the teachers at Hillsong because of what I consider “bad doctrine.”
I would like to think that with my age comes some wisdom. Among the things I’ve come to see is the reality that doctrine shouldn’t be a contact sport within the church. I see so many of these articles written with unnecessary roughness toward other people who only mean well but might be a little misguided on some things.
Yeah. I suppose there are a few things I might take exception to with HIllsong Church when it comes to their theology. But to be honest, I think that I, like you, probably find I don’t agree doctrinally with ANYONE 100%.
Part of our problem as believers is that as we hang out with like-minded people. I guess that’s not the problem, in and of itself. But what comes as a result of doing that is that we tend to avoid hanging out with (and INTERACTING) with people think differently than we do.
If you’re a good, solid bible-believing Baptist, get to know someone who is a fan of Hillsong Church, or Bethel, or some other similar church. And learn to listen to them. Give them room to share their experiences with you and hear their heart.
Our human nature is to want to avoid conflict and to avoid conversations that make us angry. But sometimes, we need to have our ideas challenged to discover WHY we believe as we do. And if we only hang out with people who think like us, there are some vast areas in our ways of thinking that never get challenged with any “mental fibre,” so to speak, to help us examine ourselves to see if we are aligned with what is true.
You just might be amazed at just how much passion and how much “Holy Spirit” you find in that “mainline denominational Christian” person you’ve always thought to be spiritually lifeless and stiff.
You might actually find that you still think those people who were wrong before are wrong now. But they might still teach you a thing or two, too.
I get the most interesting texts from my boys sometimes. They all live on their own now; some close by, some pretty far away. But whether near or far, we all try keep in touch.
They know I have my phone on all the time – in fact, they know I have my phone on just so that if they ever need to get hold of me, they know I will be available. I always want to be there for them; I want them to know I’m available, too. There are times they’ve needed to talk and I am so glad I’ve done this over the years. Even when it’s been 2:00 in the morning. So it’s not unusual to get text messages from them. Sometimes saying hello, sometimes asking for advice. But I’m always glad I’ve left the phone on.
But occasionally, I get a text like this:
You see, when my boys were little, I used to love to read them Dr Suess books like “The Lorax,” or “Green Eggs And Ham.” And they used to love the way daddy would read them. I loved it too. We made those books fun and something to look forward to.
I read those books to those kids so often that I had them pretty much memorized; especially, “The Cat In The Hat.” And over the years, it’s become a bit of a conversation piece in our family – especially when we gather at Christmas or when I meet any of the boys’ friends or girlfriends for the first time. The boys will often comment that I have it memorized – ALL OF IT – memorized.
But this one son of mine will sometimes call me out of the blue to ask me to recite “The Cat In The Hat” over the phone. He’s 25 years old now, mind you. But he still asks.
It’s ok. You see, I know when he does this, it’s because he’s got another friend there – sometimes even a few – and he’s been telling this story that his dad has the book memorized. And he’s bragging because you know their old man never memorized that book!
Now you have to know that if he calls (even at 11:00 at night my time, when I’m already in bed) and asks me to do that, then if I’m alert enough to remember how it starts (while being half asleep) I just do it.
The curious part for me is that I realize how much I like that he feels comfortable enough to call me in the middle of the night for something so inconsequential. I like that we have a level of familiarity and deep love for each other that this imposition on my sleep is the kind of thing that amuses me more than annoys me. I like that he enjoys talking about his dad in a way that lets people know how he feels about me. He thinks it’s so cool that I still remember that book.
That text from last night? Here’s the rest of it….
He let me off the hook. It’s all part of the give and take of being human I guess.
I guess, in that moment, I didn’t want to be merely human, even half-asleep. I wanted to be able to do it. It was part of the fun. I laid there, wondering whether I could recite the whole thing or get stumped part way through. In fact, it almost bothered me a little that I wasn’t able to do it in “grog mode,” just because I know what a kick he gets out of it when I recite it off the cuff.
Trust me, it’s wasn’t a show-stopper or anything. But sometimes, when you’re half-asleep, things have a whole different perspective to them. I was fascinated by what a big deal that was to me at the time.
As I was going through this exercise in my head, I remembered a scene from the movie, “As Good As It Gets,” where Jack Nickolson says to Helen Hunt, “you’re the kind of woman who makes me want to be a better man.”
I guess this kid likes to have me recite this book in a way that makes me want to be able to do it better – even in my sleep.
And then, God brought a fresh revelation to me of what His heart is for us as his children.
I recalled an article from long ago by John Dawson about this reality of the father heart of God.
Part of God’s relation to us as a father is that He wants us to look to Him to show Himself strong in our lives, in our circumstances, in our relationships and in our walk with Him. He desires to be with us in such an intimate relationship that when we can call on Him, we do so fully expecting Him to do what we ask in faith, because we know that’s just who He is.
God wants to walk with us, to spend time with us so much that when we ask for things, it’s out of a relationship that looks like a kid and his daddy who love each other. And the kid just knows His dad is a hero. And the dad just does “hero” because this kid is his kid, and dad’s “hero-reputation” is at stake.
But the kicker is….
I love that my son feels comfortable enough with me and that we are close enough that if he wants to brag about how his dad has “The Cat In The Hat” memorized, then I’m willing to take his call and spew it out. We BOTH get a kick out of it.
God reminded me of the passage in Luke 11:
Then Jesus said, “Imagine what would happen if you went to a friend in the middle of the night and said, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. An old friend traveling through just showed up, and I don’t have a thing on hand.’
“The friend answers from his bed, ‘Don’t bother me. The door’s locked; my children are all down for the night; I can’t get up to give you anything.’
“But let me tell you, even if he won’t get up because he’s a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking and waking all the neighbors, he’ll finally get up and get you whatever you need.
The idea here is not mere persistence; it is shameless persistence.
Now if you are shamelessly persistent, it might be because you are not perceptive enough to know that you should feel shame for what you’re asking of someone.
On the other hand, it just might be that you feel no shame because of the nature of the relationship. In this same conversation, Jesus pushed the point that it’s GOOD to be shamelessly persistent with God:
Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing—you’re at least decent to your own children. And don’t you think the Father who conceived you in love will give [good gifts] when you ask him?
Jesus’ point was that we SHOULD get a little “pushy” sometimes. God can handle it.
Remember that bit about Jesus preferring we were rather hot or cold than luke-warm?
And in those rooms there will be tapestries on the walls, woven from the threads of our moments of intimacy with our heavenly Father while we were here on Earth. There will be some threads in there that will be for all to see; there might even be those occasional ones woven into those tapestries that forever, only you and your heavenly Father will know and understand.
But whether they are public or uniquely between you and Him, they will be an eternal declaration of sacred moments between you and your heavenly Father while you were yet on earth, and you loved each other – remembrances created in time, but celebrated for eternity.
I believe there will be remembrances of all the times we asked God to show Himself strong; where God looked down on us, looked beyond our faults and saw our faith in Him and was pleased that we reminded Him of His word and put a demand on the relationship we have with Him. These forever memories will be trophies of grace, on eternal display, of all those times we had interactions with our papa, where we asked Him to show off and He did, just because we asked.
If anyone has struggled with an addiction or struggled with a besetting sin, he or she knows how difficult it can be to break free. And so often, in the struggle and the turmoil, there is the questioning of God and of His mercy and His wisdom in letting the addict struggle and fail – time after time after time.
Sometimes we feel we are dancing with the devil.
Well, think of it this way. The devil is interested in drawing you into his web of intrigue, darkness and despair. But he’s crafty. And he’s not going to just waltz up to you and say, “hey. I’m the devil. And I want to destroy you. Are ya interested?”
He’s subtle. He catches you off-guard, usually with things that you’re not really already resolved to avoid. You’re vulnerable in areas where you play with sin. He will trifle with you by “playing with your ‘demons.'”
Why does God allow that drug dealer to cross your path just when you finished rehab? Why does he allow that man or that woman you were involved with in sexual sin to cross your path at such a convenient time that you could, if you wanted to, act on impulses that cross so many lines of decency? Why does the Lord allow the gossip queen to appear in your path with the latest news about some friend who just came into a whole bunch of money by some slightly “inappropriate” means, when you know it’s not your place to tell the world about someone else’s imperfections?
You know you want to give in; you know you want to entertain those fantasies. You just have that feeling of your sinful nature boiling up inside, aching for release, for gratification, for gossip, for a new quest or sweet revenge. You know you shouldn’t. You know God says it’s wrong. But you have the feelings that you want to. And you wish you didn’t have to deal with them. But God lets you squirm.
Why does God not simply take the temptation away? After all, Jesus Himself said, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matt 6:13). We ask: “Please, Lord, deliver me from this temptation.” And it feels so often that God simply doesn’t answer; He leaves us to stumble and fall, sinning against Him time and time again, left with the guilt and shame, and convincing ourselves that if we really loved God the way we say we do, we would not sin against him over and over again.
And the truth is – and this is hard – but the truth is…
James says in his epistle “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.”
Jesus loved the Father like we would want to love the father. Jesus knew no sin. “He was tempted in every way like we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15). When Jesus was tempted, he was able to stand; He committed no sin in the midst of temptation. Yet we know that we are not like that.
And yet, we are not always mindful that “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matt. 4:1).
Jesus told us to pray to the Father that we would not be led into temptation, but that we could be delivered from evil; and yet even Jesus himself was led by the Spirit directly into a situation where he was tempted and tested by the personification of pure evil – the devil Himself.
And God allows it.
He could make it easier. Jesus told us to pray for God to not allow us to be brought into temptation. We are, in fact, told by Jesus that we should pray that we be delivered from temptation. But He lets us stumble and trip and fall.
And yet, the apostle Paul reminds us that “no temptation has overtaken us except such as is common to man. And God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to withstand” (1 Cor 10:12). But we realize we didn’t really want to withstand as much as we would like to think.
Again, as I said before: the truth is – and this is hard.
But the truth is, we really don’t love Him the way we would like to think we do.
There are things we will not always be able to understand. We are told that God tempts no one, and that if we are tempted, we need to know it is because we are led away and enticed by the fruit that grows from our own nature. And yet our experience often FEELS like we are in the midst of circumstances from which God could deliver us if He wanted to; but He does not. Jesus Himself was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. And Jesus Himself told us, “no slave is above his master.” Jesus said, “if they persecute me, they will persecute you.” And he was speaking of other people. But it applies to the demonic realms, too.
The scriptures say to us “beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Pet 4:13). If he went through it, it shouldn’t surprise us that we have to go through it too.
If you are faced with temptations that confront the reality of who you are, consider yourself in good company. The devil tempted Jesus, too.
We see it as the itch we hate to love to scratch. We are tempted, and teeter back and forth between choosing God’s desires or our own in the moment. We convince ourselves that we aren’t really being that bad; or else that God understands, or that it really doesn’t matter, or we just can’t help ourselves. And then after we give in to the temptation, we kick ourselves as we look at our Father’s love for us, how we have failed him, and how guilty and unclean we feel. We resolve – even VOW – NEVER to do it again. And yet, the cycle goes round and round: wash, rinse, repeat.
Yet, believe it or not, our heavenly Father sees it as a sacred dance.
His heart is for us. He WANTS us to succeed. His love is infinite, his patience is great. He gives us opportunities, one after another, to stumble and fail, stumble and fail, stumble and fail until we eventually learn to stand upon our own feet, having our hearts conformed to His image. In those moments when we are battling our own nature and choosing between serving God and serving self, our heavenly Father is seeing us through the lens of eternity future – He is looking at us with hope and desire, through the view of what we will be like when He has finished shaping us into who He desires us to be.
And when we fall, He is still who He is – holy and loving. We see Him for who He is. And as we do, His holiness convicts us while His love draws us. He holds the sword to our chest, aimed square at those “not-surrendered” parts of our nature, and calls us to walk toward him. And he allows us to come to the end of ourselves, slowly, little by little, through all the stench of failure and self-will. And He stays on the dance floor, inviting us to dance with Him, to try again.
The most compelling statement I have heard lately was a statement in an open letter to Bree Olson, a woman who left the world of the pornographic film industry from Jonathan Welton, where he says,
Your destiny – the vision, the plan, the goal that the father has for you – is to eventually be conformed to the character and likeness of Jesus Himself. The father’s heart is to cheer you on and encourage you to be transformed to the place where evil cannot any longer get its hooks in you, because you have been changed from glory to glory into His character so that the things that once enticed you no longer have any appeal.
God’s ultimate plan is not merely to deliver you from temptation by removing you from the places it can touch you. His plan is to allow temptation to transform you to the point where those things just don’t even tempt you anymore.
God wants you to become the kind of person who has fallen in love with the idea of worshipping God for God’s sake, and not merely because you are better off that way. You are better off that way. But God’s desire is that you worship Him freely, as a free agent.
But you won’t even know what you need to work on to become that person unless God allows temptation to demonstrate who He knows you really were all along.
But don’t worry.
He wants us to be transformed into people with perfect, obedient hearts, who will obey because our love for Him is greater than our desire for our own motives – like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, when they were were near to being cast into the fiery furnace for not bowing down to the King of Babylon. In that moment of having to choose to die for their faith or to give in the king’s demands to worship him as god, their answer was clear.
“O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Dan 4:16-18).
So many people, when they give their lives to Jesus, do so for such human and broken and insufficient reasons. Some come to Jesus because they feel they are better off for it. And they are. Some come because they have needs that only God can meet. And some truly do. Some come to Him because of a very real fear of hell. Hell is real.
These are all legitimate things. We do all have needs that only God can meet. We are better off when we surrender our lives to God’s will and control. We do need to avoid hell at any cost.
But Jerry Bridges said, “even our tears of repentance need to be washed in the blood of the lamb.”
Ultimately, God wants us to surrender to Him, fully and completely, because God desires to be worshipped and obeyed simply because He is God. But in a relationship of love, you can’t separate total surrender to the loving King of Kings from the King’s unending love being lavished freely upon you. And you can’t love freely unless you are choosing to do so.
And sometimes, we don’t know how much we love Him until we are allowed to make some very difficult choices in his direction.
It is the sacred dance. It is falling in love with the right dance partner, and enjoying His company, and letting Him lead you in this dance to all the places He wants to take you, for how it will intertwine your heart with His. It is how He wants to write the stories of eternity with how you both fell in love with each other, with the dance.
Christianity Today sent out an email recently about the annual “International Day Of prayer” which is April 23rd of this year. I have to confess that in times past, I’ve not paid much attention to these events.
It’s not that I don’t believe in prayer. It’s just that I don’t always get the concept of “uniting in prayer with everyone around the world.” In reality, what often comes to my mind is a picture of all kinds of people with all kinds of liberal, self-centered or even downright ungodly slants, vaguely praying in hope their prayers might somehow be answered, but not having any grasp of who this God is that they are praying to or how or why He answers prayers, let alone that their prayers shouldn’t really be about them, but about Him.
And if you’re an evangelical Christian as I am, you might be able to identify with how frustrating that thought can be. How do you come together to pray with people who don’t share anything like a common understanding of who God is? After all, as the bible says, “how can two walk together unless they be agreed?”(Amos 3:3) Can a Christian even unite in prayer with those who don’t know the God of the bible?
In a moment, in a flash as I was reading that email, I recalled a story that I read long ago in a book called “Risky Living” by Jamie Buckingham. In that book, Jamie tells the story about how God spoke to him while he was visiting a mainline denominational Christian campground somewhere in New England.
At this point in Jamie’s life, he had been rediscovering God in a whole new way through experiences he had in the charismatic movement. He felt close to God, intimately connected with Him and truly enlightened about who God was – both in the world and also personally in his own life.
And as he had been growing in this new relationship with Jesus, he also felt that there were so many others who had a very cold, distant relationship with the Lord – particularly many of those he had left behind in the denominational church.
But on this particular day, as he was walking across the grass at this campground, he noticed a hill with three large wooden crosses planted at the top. And as he stood there for a moment, looking at those crosses, he started to wonder what it would have been like for his savior to hang upon a cross.
So he walked to the top of that hill, turned his back to cross in the middle, raised his arms and hung his hands over the horizontal beam to hold himself in that place so he could imagine what it was like for Jesus to hang there, bleeding and broken, his life ebbing away and feeling betrayed by His heavenly father.
But as soon as he placed his hands there, he quickly discovered something that was both shocking and revealing.
This rough-hewn crucifix had been worn down – almost to a polished finish – by countless others who had done this same thing before he ever did. Those stuffy, liberal Christians from those mainline, denominatiional churches who attended this campgound also wanted to try to imagine what Jesus must have suffered when he hung there, dying in their place, for their sins.
Jamie realized in an instant that perhaps this “problem” those stuffy, denominational Christians had was not what God was wanting to deal with in that moment. Jamie was suddenly confronted with the reality that God needed to deal with Jamie’s heart about his attitudes. What became clear was the shocking revelation that along with this new-found intimacy with God came a subtle pride about how much more spiritual he had become compared to all those others he had left behind in the denominational church.
And when I read this recent email about the international day of prayer, and then thought of this passage in Jamie’s book, I had my own instant flash of revelation. I had a slightly sickening, uncomfortable moment of self-honesty:
I’m just being honest here.
The apostle Paul spoke freqently of his heart breaking for the lost; of his heart being joyful when others came to know Jesus; of his heart being burdened in prayer that others would know Jesus as Paul himself did.
I would like to say I’m there with Paul, heart breaking, heart joyful, heart burdened in prayer. But if I’m at all authentic with the God that both I and many others serve, I need to admit that all too often, I have a very cold heart and am all too often filled with a subtle arrogance and pride. And it shows in oh, so many ways.
Let me count the ways.
Spiritual pride can be such a subtle thing. And one of the ways it can sneak up on you is when you confuse spiritual knowledge with virtue. Peter said,
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,e and virtue with knowledge…. (2 Peter 1:15)
Spiritual pride creeps up on me when I grow in knowledge of the faith but I forget that knowledge about God is really a means to the end of knowing him better so I can enjoy my relationship with him better and walk more in holiness and humility. As James said, “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:22)
Guilty. It’s so much easier to learn facts than to spend time on my face before God. But time with Him is what I need, and what I am all too often lacking.
Is your love growing and becoming softer, brighter, more daring and more visible? Or is it becoming more discriminating, more calculating, less vulnerable and less available? This is a very important issue, for your Christianity is only as real as your love. A measurable decrease in your ability to love is evidence that a stronghold of cold love is developing within you….
The measure of one’s love is found in the depth of his or her commitment to others….
Many people will stumble over little faults and human weaknesses. These minor things are quickly pumped up by the enemy into great big problems. Oh, how frail are the excuses people use to justify withdrawing from others. In reality, these problems, often with a church or pastor, are a smokescreen which masks the person’s lack of love.
It is all too easy to confuse culture and taste with the hard realities of how spiritual other people are. I realize that I have all too often looked too easily through culturally colored lenses, confusing what is spiritual with what is worldly, but acceptable because I have become a product of my culture. But when I surround myself with only like-minded people in my little echo chamber, only associating with friends who think and feel like I do, I can start to see those differences as “spiritual inferiority” in others when they might have nothing to do with any level of spirituality at all.
And while I’m so busy focusing on their lack of spirituality, I don’t adequately appreciate God’s heart of passion for these same people to know Him at least as much as I know Him. I don’t feel God’s desire that all these people be pursued and won to Jesus. My heart doesn’t ache for the lost and for their hearts to be made to look like my heavenly Father’s heart.
There is that uncomfortable passage in first John that says, “whoever says he is in the light and yet does not love his brother is still in darkness” (1 John 2:9).
People are relatively unimportant to me if they don’t play a personal part in my life.
Don’t get me wrong. I realize no one has the capacity to know everyone, or to love everybody perfectly. We are human and limited by time and space.
But it is also human nature to dwell more on what we don’t like about people than on how we are to love them anyway. And while that is human nature, it is human nature that Christ empowers us to overcome.
Just being honest here.
I’m going to make an effort this year – a real, honest-to-goodness effort – to pray this year during the international day of prayer. I will determine to pray, not as the one who is at the center of my universe, but as one who chooses to see God in that place, and all the others (of which I am only one) being of equal significance in my savior’s eyes.
Because it’s not about me.
I’m going to make an effort to pray for others who may not know Jesus as lord and savior but who are praying to God as they know Him. And instead of looking down at them for not having the spiritual enlightenment to know Jesus, I will be on my knees in my heart, interceding for them that Jesus would reveal Himself to them too; so that, if they become aware of their sin, arrogance and pride, and drop to their knees seeking His face for forgiveness, I will already be on my knees there beside them, having waited for them to show up.
I’m going to pray as one who likely has far more needs than I am aware of, in all those places where I’m probably too self-absorbed to even look, asking God to teach me – about who He is, about how much I need him and about what he wants to change in me.
And if one of those stuffy, old, denominational Christians shows up praying shallow prayers with very little understanding of who God is for them, then I pray that my heart will not be one of subtle arrogance and pride for how much more enlightened I am than they are. I will pray that my heart will be filled with joy that they’re trying as best they can; that God will give them light as He has given me; that they will all be able to find God as He is, and not merely as they want Him to be.
I will try to have an attitude that J. I. Packer speaks of in his book, “Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God.” I don’t want to be, or to even mistakenly come across as the person who is superior and shining my infinite light and wisdom for all to see. I want to more consciously walk with a simple attitude of one beggar showing other beggars where he found bread.
And if, on the other hand, one of those old, denominational Christians shows up with a depth of relationship with the God that I know and love, with a thing or two to teach me, with insights into the spiritual realm that I don’t yet have, then I pray that I will be open enough to sense God in their words and in their heart, and that I will have the humility to learn what God may want to use them to teach me.
I’m just being honest here. And I pray above all, that everyone who prays on that day will get a gift of honesty from the Lord, no matter how much it hurts, for how it will change them; and by that, change the world for God and for His glory.
Life is a series of ups and downs. For most of us, the journey is not always a steady-state of happiness, focus or peace in our surroundings. We all struggle with varying levels of discontent about our circumstances, frustration with our tasks or limits to our situations and the like.
From a Christian perspective, it leaves us disappointed sometimes, and wondering where God is in the midst of the struggles and the disappointments. And when it goes on for extended periods of time, it can be extremely depressing and discouraging. (Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick…“)
We read promises in the word of God that tell us He is with us all the time; words from Jesus Himself that we should not worry (Matt 6:25) because God is in control (Heb. 13:5)”For he has said, ‘never will I leave you or forsake you.” But sometimes it still FEELS like He isn’t in this ride with us; or if He is, that He really isn’t doing things the way we feel he should. And that leaves us feeling sometimes like He doesn’t care about us like He says He does. In fact, for some people, they really do feel (if they are honest with themselves) that God hasn’t really come through for them like God really should do if He really is a loving and all-powerful God.
First choice: we can be angry with God because we feel He isn’t doing for us what we think a God SHOULD be doing for us in our situation. Now, understand that feeling angry isn’t automatically something we can control. But there does come a point where we have to acknowledge that not only are we angry, but we feel we have a RIGHT to be angry with God. And THIS is the real issue. The question is perhaps better phrased: are you holding onto a right to resent God for how He has not done what you feel He should be doing in your circumstances?
Our second Choice: we can SURRENDER – we can let go of our expectations that God SHOULD be doing something He is NOT doing, and rest in our trust in the God who sometimes might allow some things that we don’t understand. There will be times in our lives where things will be (or at least they will look like they will be) out of our control.
And we don’t have to LIKE our circumstances. But we can choose to NOT resent God for what we cannot understand and what we cannot control.
The third choice is that we just want our circumstances to be different. We want the blindness or deafness to go away; we want back those toes that were amputated because of diabetes. We want our child or spouse who died because of some drunk driver to be with us again; we want our money or posessions back that were stolen from us; we want to NOT be suffering from some incurable illness.
Now, there might be reasons why the third choice isn’t happening for us. Lots of reasons, perhaps.
But let’s just suppose you’ve exhausted your list of things you can do, and your circumstances are just really awful. And there’s nothing you can do to get the “third choice.” And there doesn’t seem to be anything that God is doing about it right now, either. What do you do?
You can make choice number 3, and hold God in contempt until He gives you choice number 3, or you can make choice number 1, and SURRENDER. But you need to know that God probably is not going to give you what you think you should have, simply because you think you should have it. You and He might be at an impasse on this. So what do you do?
But you can only have this peace if you will surrender to God, choosing to believe He is a God of love, provision, mercy and grace – even when you don’t see it, when you don’t understand it, and when you don’t feel it. And when you do, you will have “peace that surpasses all understanding” (Phil. 4:7).
But this peace will come at a price. The price you have to pay to have this peace in your life is choosing to let go of your rights to hold God in contempt for any and every way that you feel He has let you down, or fallen short, or not come through for you.
Perhaps you could say that you need to forgive the God who needs no forgiveness.
Sometimes in life there are no easy choices; there are only right ones and wrong ones. Make the right choice. Choose to trust God, even when you can’t see what He is doing.
I remember, back in 1994, hearing a bit of a hullaballoo about the “Toronto Blessing” (a revival that is purported to have broken out at the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church in 1994, now known as “Catch The Fire“). It is one of those stories that, depending on your persuasion, leaves you with some very positive or very negative feelings about what was going on there at the time. For those of a charismatic leaning, it was really something. For those who lean more toward the baptistic side of the fence, it was really something else. But like I said, it’s not always what it looks like.
Like it or not, it really made a mark on the church, and has continued to do so for the last 20 years or so, and whether or not it has had a net positive effect is something that many people have opinions about. I have my own opinion. And I have to position myself here, probably warming some of your hearts in the process and alienating others at the same time. But we all have to stand (or fall) before God based on what we know, and what we do with what we know, and so I write the following, knowing that people will all process it differently.
The reason I want to put this out there is because I know that, at the time, I had some very negative emotions about what I was hearing; having changed my views over the last 20 years or so, and having now heard some inside bits and pieces to some of the stories, I thought it might be good to share what is, by some means, a story to which I have some inside info, and hopefully sharing it will move some people in a direction of being open to what God might be doing in situations, even when we don’t see all of what He is doing. But rest assured, my end goal is in mind as I write. I hope you will come along for story time and we can arrive at a good place by the end. So, here goes.
I have visited the “Catch The Fire” fellowship in Toronto now, probably a half dozen times, and have attended a five-day conference there in the past. But I did not always see the place in the same light that I do now.
Back in 1994, when I first heard of what was going on there, it was while I was attending a baptist church, having read and pretty much bought into what was in John MacArthur’s book, “The Charismatics: a doctrinal perspective.” I was, at the time, pretty much convinced that the Charismatic churches were very much driven by emotion, and very light on doctrinal strength. And so, when I friend called and left me a voice message at the time, telling me there was a “massive revival sweeping the Toronto Airport Vineyard church, and that it was heading our way,” I was a tad skeptical. I figured if a revival was coming, and it was really revival, the fruit would soon be on its way and I would see it when it got to my town.
But I digress.
What bothered me at the time was the news that seemed to make the TV and radio about it at the time – people crawling on their hands and knees; people barking like dogs and roaring like lions; gold fillings appearing in people’s mouths. I had already been to some healing meetings in some major US cities and had been present as people would parade across the stage, speaking into the microphone at healing meetings as they proclaimed what God had done for them.
Being curious, and considering myself open-minded at the time, but wanting to see confirmation about whether or not what these people were saying was true, I actually approached the stage at one of these meetings to get a better feel for what was really going on. And I wanted to get up close and personal. So I picked one person as a test case. I wanted to witness first hand what I was told was happening.
There was a young lady who went across the platform, saying that God had straightened her teeth. She said her teeth were crooked and now they were ALL STRAIGHT!! Praise God! I wanted to see this!! So I went to the end of the platform, and approached her as she came down the stairs. I asked her if God had straightened her teeth. She said, “yes. He did. I can still feel Him straightening them.”
I was looking at the proverbial picket fence in her mouth. They did not look straight to me. Not at all. I was disappointed. I wanted to see straight teeth. I really did. But they were not to be seen. At least not in this mouth.
I’ve heard of the stories of gold teeth appearing in people’s mouths. And they’ve done some investigating at places like Toronto (I say good for them) only to find that there were a lot of these people thinking God had given them gold fillings only to find out, when returning to their dentist’s office that the dentist had to tell them that he himself had installed those fillings, those crowns.
But not all of them. Not all. Some were, apparently, unexplainable by the dentist. The dentists suggested maybe they drank some funny orange juice or something…..
Because sometimes, you have to hear the rest of the story.
A couple of years ago, I heard testimony from a man who says he was at the Toronto Airport Vineyard back then, and he was the guy who was reported about in the paper who roared like a lion. He is a personal friend of someone I know intimately in ministry, and someone I trust very much to be of good character and not given to unnecessary emotionalism or hype. He spoke at a morning meeting, telling them that HE was the one who roared like a lion. He says God spoke to him in that moment to do it; he felt foolish doing so, but was just doing what he very distinctly thought God was telling him to do. I can appreciate obedience to what you believe God is telling you to do. Others have done it. God told Abraham to lay his son on a pile of wood and offer him as a burnt offering. He told Hosea to marry a prostitute. He made Isaiah walk around half-naked for three years prophesying against Israel. So if a guy believes God is telling him to do something, he is maybe not in bad company.
Anyway, I had occasion to speak with one of the ministers at the Toronto Vineyard about a year and a half ago, and asked him about this person (mentioning him by name). He replied, “why, YES. That was NUTS. We just didn’t know what to do with it at the time. We were all just coming out of the baptist church at the time, and we didn’t know WHAT to do with the guy. And then, we asked him his story, and he said he was a pastor! And we thought ‘a PASTOR? WHAT the heck are we getting into here?!?!”
Here, from this man’s website, is his personal testimony about the event.
New members flowed in to Zion as the Father’s heart poured out in what is known as the Toronto Blessing, bringing refreshment to many. At the October 1, 1994 “Why Encounter” event, which joined key cities across Canada through a satellite network, Pastor Gideon, was invited to pray for China. The Lion of Judah “roared” through him against the dragon of China, and by God’s design, this day coincided with the day known as China’s National Day. Months earlier, when God touched Pastor Gideon so deeply in Toronto and he began to roar, what he witnessed in the spirit was Almighty God making a decree to Satan, saying, “Let My people go.” He knew then that many things in God’s divine plan were about to unfold.
I had previously published this blog as a post on another site. When I first published it, I thought this person should remain nameless, because I didn’t feel I had the liberty to broadcast who he is because of the nature of his ministry. He has been very influential in ministry to the Chinese church. But then again, he has a web site where I do believe he discusses this anyway. So I will say that the man’s name is Gideon Chiu.
And lest you think he is just some Joe off the street who might not have it all together, you will see on his web site that among his list of credentials is:
And he was ordained, after having obtained these degrees, about a decade before God told him to roar like a lion.
Since then, has been instrumental in establishing a world-changing outreach to China. Gideon is involved in mobilizing MANY (I won’t mention numbers, but it’s HUGE) to go into the middle east to evangelize Muslims and to lead them to Jesus.
He would tell you, if he knew you could hear it with an open mind, that in that moment, he saw in the Spirit that God was making a decree to the devil, saying to the devil, “let my people go.” He knew that God broke something loose for him in the spirit realm in that moment and opening a vast area of ministry.
God has been using this man in his ministry to China and to the Chinese church, and he, with all his education and experience, attributes some of what is happening to a moment in time, when he obeyed what he believed was a leading of the Spirit to do something that, to many people looking on, and not knowing what was happening between him and God in the moment, simply wrote it off to silliness and emotionalism.
Sometimes, you can only fully see the reality of it with the ultimate ripening of the fruit. But sometimes, that’s just the way God works. And if you believe God is telling you to do something, you just need to step out in faith and do it. And if you missed it, God is big enough to handle it for the both of you. But you’ll probably be surprised that it really was Him all along.
PS: for another similar story, I stumbled upon this one when I was doing some research for the article. You can make your own judgements about it, but it is interesting to see how God works. This was another fascinating story that sounded much the same.
I want first to say that Colin Hamer`s book, “Divorce and the Bible” is a book I highly recommend, even though I don`t agree with all of the conclusions in the book.
It’s not the first time I’ve recommended books I don’t agree with completely. It seems that a book can be good for a number of reasons, only ONE of which is whether or not all the conclusions it draws are entirely accurate. For a book to be ‘good,’ it should make you THINK; it should communicate clearly, state it’s opinion fairly, at least try to give recognition to the issues that people of different persuasions would have with the position. The author should also say “don`t know” when he or she doesn’t know.
“Divorce and the bible” is a worthwhile read because it presents a position not typical in Evangelical Christian circles, but that needs to be considered by those who hold tenaciously to the “2 reasons only” position so often reflected by evangelicals and fundamentalists, such as John MacArthur.
My opinion, by the way, is that this “2 positions only” take on the issue is the easiest one to see by citing simple proof-texts from the scriptures; but that this position only really holds up until the arguments for the position are challenged with issues from the Greek of the New Testament, issues from first century Jewish history and the like. It is also required reading as a reasoned response to some prominent evangelical Christian positions, such as John Piper and Voddie Baucham and their position on the “permanence view” of marriage, such as Daryl Wingerd – Divorce and Remarriage: : A Permanence View.
I have seen, over the years, so many people wounded by the church by other well-meaning Christians who insist that a woman who is in an abusive relationship is not allowed the privilege of entering into a meaningful committed relationship with anyone else, even if divorced, because it is “adultery,” as defined by Jesus (supposedly) in Matthew 5, Matthew 19, Mark 10 and the like. Our understanding on this issue is that Jesus was speaking in hyperbole, and speaking in such irony that it would make the Pharisees furious with him; but these reasons are not clear simply from examining 21st century translations of the Greek texts, and without understanding of the 1st century Jewish culture into which Jesus spoke.
“Divorce and the Bible” is laid out in a series of chapters; each chapter gives a summary of the salient points at the end of the chapter. Then, at the end of the book, are 5 appendices, each dealing with a particular passage of scripture which causes confusion in the discussion.
The salient principles of interpretation of the bible on the issue, as the author sees it:
Good principles.
Salient doctrinal conclusions worth considering (and/or different than the “2 positions” camp)
Again, I don’t agree with all the conclusions in the book; but it does make you think. It brings points to the discussion that need to be made – rules are different for men and for women.
Ultimately, I believe that there are two other well-written and well-researched books which need to be considered carefully as helpful background in processing what the bible says to come to a proper conclusion about the issue. These books are..
And Marries Another: Divorce and Remarriage in the Teaching of the New Testament
and
Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible: The Social and Literary Context
As well as Brewer’s less technical and more practically-oriented
Divorce and Remarriage in the Church: Biblical Solutions for Pastoral Realities
Both of these books are worthy opponents to the “2 reasons only” position on divorce and remarriage, and they need to be considered in the mix, because they bring other cultural considerations into the conversation; Brewer’s book, especially, touches on much of the cultural considerations and hypocrisy in the first century that need to be understood to grasp the full picture, and to understand how so much of what Jesus said was challenging (scathing) remarks to the Pharisees of his day, and not necessarily blanket statements on divorce and remarriage.
But ‘Divorce and the Bible’ by Colin Hamer is a worthwhile read because of its own internal consistency; because of its fair presentation of how it fits into the panorama of five or six major positions on the issue of divorce and remarriage; because of the fact that it is well-written, makes you think, answers well how this position answers objections about it raised by the ‘2 positions only’ crowd. People who hold that position, such as John MacArthur and Jay Adams, need to consider these issues raised in the book. Those who hold to the ‘permanence view’ of divorce and remarriage (Voddie Baucham and John Piper, for instance) need to wrestle with some of the issues raised in this book.
It seems so unfortunate that so many well-meaning people want to put other Christians in straight-jackets of theology that God never intended others to wear. This book does a valiant job of bringing worthy points to the discussion, allowing some freedom for believers to see that not everyone believes those straight-jackets need to be worn.
Last updated 2016-01-25
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